Esperanza Spalding was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. Jimmy first interviewed her and asked her what she did after winning her Grammy Award for "Best New Artist", her reaction to Bieber fans, she also discussed how she got into music at a very early age and the instruments she's learned to master over the years.
Esperanza also talked about the four times she played at the White House. While some artists might get nervous meeting President Obama, she was too enamored by musicians in the front row to let her nerves get the best of her.
“He’s very kind and was very gracious,” she explained. “I shook his hand, said hello, tried not to get all googly. Just very gracious. And also, the first time I played for them, Paul Simon was there and Herbie Hancock was there and Stevie Wonder was there. So I sort of was preoccupied with the front row lineup and didn’t have time to be nervous with him or anything.”
Watch Esperanza Spalding on Jimmy Kimmel Live below. There's also a video of her performance for “Really Very Small” she did at the end of the show.
Portland jazz artist and Grammy winner Esperanza Spalding returned to the Rose City this week. In this video, she discusses discipline and music, her commitment to her craft, and criticism about her music.
The bassist, who grew up in Portland and won Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards earlier this month, will perform tonight a sold out show for the 2011 PDX Jazz Festival Bridges and Boundaries: Jewish & African Americans Playing Jazz Together at the Newmark Theater.
She also visited Portland State University on Thursday to teach a master class and drew a crowd of nearly 300. She is a wonderful role model for young aspiring musicians and the music industry. Make sure to see her live at any of her upcoming concerts.
I don't think I can put the right words together to explain how good it makes me feel to see an extremely talented artist such as Esperanza Spalding do so well in today's world of music. She is a breath of fresh air, who was desperately needed in the music industry. I also appreciate how humble and hard working she is, a true role model.
Esperanza Spalding realized at the tender age of four that she wanted to learn how to play music after seeing classical cellist Yo Yo Ma perform on an episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood". “That was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical,” she says. “It was definitely the thing that hipped me to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit.”
She literally taught herself how to play the violin within a year and then landed a spot in The Chamber Music Society of Oregon, a community orchestra. She stayed with them for ten years until she was fifteen years old and at which point she was promoted to a concertmaster position.
Also, at age fifteen she discovered the bass which opened her up to other genres of music such as blues, funk, hip-hop and a variety of other styles. At age sixteen, she got her GED and went to Portland State University, where she enrolled in the music program.
She then moved on to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she obtained a B.M. and signed on as an instructor in 2005, at only 20 years old! It made her the youngest faculty member in the history of the college. She was the 2005 recipient of the prestigious Boston Jazz Society scholarship for outstanding musicianship. During that time she met a lot of artists such as pianist Michel Camilo, vibraphonist Dave Samuels, bassist Stanley Clarke, guitarist Pat Metheny, singer Patti Austin, and saxophonists Donald Harrison and Joe Lovano. “Working with Joe was terrifying,” she recalls, “but he’s a really generous person. I don’t know if I was ready for the gig or not, but he had a lot of faith in me. It was an amazing learning experience.”
In 2008, she released her first album titled "Esperanza", which is such a special name, because it means Hope. The New York Times raved, “Esperanza has got a lot: accomplished jazz improvisation, funk, scat singing, Brazilian vernacular rhythm and vocals in English, Portuguese and Spanish. At its center is a female bassist, singer and bandleader, one whose talent is beyond question.” "Esperanza" also topped the Billboard's Contemporary Jazz chart, where it remained for 70 weeks!
Esperanza Spalding as appeared on many late night shows. Other highlights include two appearances at the White House, a Banana Republic ad campaign, the Jazz Journalists Association’s 2009 Jazz Award for Up and Coming Artist of the Year, the 2009 JazzWeek Award for Record of the Year, and many high profile tour dates, including Central Park SummerStage in New York and the Newport Jazz Festival. 2009 was capped by an invitation from President Obama to perform at both the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway – where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded – and also at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
In August 2010 she released her latest album "Chamber Music Society", and she is currently working on the sequel of that album, which will be titled "Radio Music Society". Can't wait to hear it!
Esperanza has so many other accomplishments and one of the most recent is a GRAMMY AWARD for BEST NEW ARTIST! She is the first jazz musician to ever achieve this, she is phenomenal, a true inspiration!
Check out her music, go see her shows, she's phenomenal, and she will definitely make you want to pick up an instrument!
I've put together a list of videos of the performances I enjoyed the most during tonight's Grammy Awards. These include the tribute to Aretha Franklin, Esperanza Spalding, Barbra Streisand, Mick Jagger and Raphael Saadiq, Bruno Mars, B.o.B, Janelle Monae, Lady Antebellum, and Cee-Lo Green and the Muppets (without Gwyneth Paltrow, can't remember her actually).
The best surprise of the night was Esperanza Spalding's win in the Best New Artist category. I was rooting for her so much, couldn't be happier for her! What an artist!
Mick Jagger and Raphael Saadiq were a great duo on stage, they really worked it! Would be nice to see them again collaborating on something else.
I was also thrilled to see Lady Antebellum win so many awards, they play so well together. Great vocals, great songs, and great music.
The Pre-GRAMMY Telecast was also great, lots of very talented artists were rewarded. Among these include Mavis Staples and Herbie Hancock. Mavis Staples also performed with Cyndi Lauper, Maria Muldaur, and Betty Wright during the Pre-GRAMMY Telecast. Super funky Trombone Shorty was also phenomenal, make sure to check him out!
Esperanza Spalding gives us a very interesting look at her background, how she got to the level she is now, and her feelings about her Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
Esperanza Spalding started playing music when she was five years old. She then played violin for ten years, and when she turned fifteen she discovered the bass. Through this instrument she discovered jazz and started to explore and improvise music.
Later on she moved to Boston and went to Berkley, which is where she started signing and playing. She then had amazing mentors such as Patty Austin, Prince, and Stevie Wonder.
She explains who well Prince and her clicked musically and became friends. Esperanza also shares how Stevie Wonder discovered her music and how it led her to perform at the White House.
This year, Esperanza is going on two major US tours, some European dates, and will be working on her next album "Radio Music Society" with Q-Tip
Can you believe that Esperanza Spalding is the first artist in the past 35 years to receive a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist? Jazz is one of the most interesting, complex, stimulating music, how is this possible? There are many reasons that come to mind why she should win, and I truly hope that she will. She knows music, plays, music, she's a true artist. The music world needs artists such as Esperanza Spalding.
Esperanza Spalding will be on tour this month, starting at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, Newmark Theater on February 25th and the University of Southern California, Bovard Auditorium on February 26th. Check out her entire tour schedule here.
Esperanza Spalding performed "Winter Sun" from her latest album "Chamber Music Society" last Friday on David Letterman's show. She recently received a nomination in the Best New Artist category at next month's Grammy Awards.
Esperanza was writing music in New Jersey when she came up with "Winter Sun". "I was living in New Jersey at the time in a mildly dreary neighborhood," Spalding says. "I would be inside writing and you see the light coming in, and you check to see if it's sunny yet or not in the winter."
At first, "Winter Sun" didn't have words. But, as always, inspiration struck.
"I was on a tour with some other musicians; one night at 1 a.m. when I couldn't sleep, the lyrics just all came at once," Spalding says. "This image of this bare tree in front of my house in the winter. When the sun comes, I see the bark light up and I was thinking, 'Wow, as a tree, what a wonderful feeling that you're freezing, so cold that you hold no leaves, no nothing, and to suddenly feel the warmth of that sun pass over you.' That must be a really wonderful sensation. It certainly is to me as a human when I feel the sun touching my skin."
Esperanza Spalding will be on tour starting from February throughout April, check out the dates and venues here.
Bassist, vocalist and composer Esperanza Spalding will release Chamber Music Society (Heads Up) on August 18th. The album weaves elements of jazz, folk and world music. This is chamber music for modern times and well might be a new direction for jazz. Esperanza first took the world by storm in 2008 with her self-titled debut recording that spent more than 70 weeks on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart. She is a force to be reckoned with.
Watch the creation of Chamber Music Society, what it means to Esperanza and what she is trying to teach the world with this modern version of Chamber Music.
" from her latest album "
" last Friday on David Letterman's show. She recently received a nomination in the Best New Artist category at next month's Grammy Awards. 
